Questo è uno di quei romanzi che mi rendono felice di partecipare alla 2019 RHC: non l’avevo mai sentito nominare prima e non potrò mai ringraziare il gruppo di BookRiot per averlo consigliato per questa task.

Questa terra dell’uomo è la storia perfetta per capire cosa significa essere un popolo colonizzato e razzializzato. Spesso capita di incrociare sui social persone bianche che si risentono un sacco non appena si fa notare loro come il razzismo sia bello rampante e di come esse stesse di macchino di barbarie che riescono a vedere solo se commesse da “quella gente là”.

A Minke, giovane nativo giavanese, viene insegnato quanto sia civile, progredita e moderna la cultura europea, e lui ci crede: sente parlare di nuove cure, della bellissima letteratura olandese, delle leggi illuminate e della fine di ogni servilismo e schiavitù. Imparerà ben presto, però, che tutta questa civiltà illuminata non è destinata a lui, che al massimo sarà un animaletto dalle multiformi virtù e usi, ma è riservata a chi ha la pelle bianca.

E il razzismo non è solo questo, evidente ai nostri occhi – o almeno si spera – ma ha anche forme più subdole. Come lo si vede quando si maschera di buone intenzioni, quando diventa il problema è che voi avete abbastanza istruzione, abbastanza voglia di rovesciare il sistema, abbastanza forza, abbastanza tutto. Come fare a essere abbastanza in un mondo che cerca in ogni modo di non farti raggiungere quell’abbastanza?

C’è chi lo raggiunge comunque. Come non vedere la forza di Nyai Ontosoroh, uno dei personaggi femminili più belli che mi sia capitato di trovare in letteratura: una donna venduta da giovanissima affinché diventasse la concubina di un bianco e che è capace di vedere l’ipocrisia e la bassezza morale degli europei come poche altre.

Ma non tutte le persone riescono ad avere quella forza: alcune avrebbero bisogno di protezione: che razza di società civile è una che dice ai suoi membri più deboli, arrangiati! Si direbbe una società che non dovrebbe azzardarsi a ergersi a modello per tutte le altre. E invece… ( )

5/5 A classic.

Wow, my country got some good classics.

Although, I gotta say that the romance plot is kinda soap opera-y but the rest of the aspects (the historical context, the narrative, etc.) is fantastic. If Indonesia had a Literature 101 class, this book better be in the curriculum.

I'll maybe read the rest of the tetralogy one day. ( )

This Earth of Mankind (Bumi Manusia) is the first in the Buru Quartet, so called because it was conceived on the island of Buru— where Pramoedya was imprisoned without trial in 1965 when the military dictatorship of President Suharto cracked down on anyone they thought had communist sympathies. (See Wikipedia for more information about the anti-Communist massacres in 1965-6). Pramoedya had been researching the history of Indonesia for what was to be a series of historical novels about the beginnings of national consciousness in Indonesia in the period 1890-1920, but when he was arrested all his books and materials were burned. Undeterred by the prohibition on books and writing materials in the prison, Pramoedya narrated his novels to his fellow-prisoners, but it was not until 1975 that he was finally able to commit his works to paper. This Earth of Mankind was finally published in 1979 in Jakarta, and thanks to a young Australian Embassy staffer called Max Lane, it was translated into English in 1982. (Lane was promptly recalled to Australia because of Indonesian displeasure at his role in disseminating the novel, and you can read why he thinks everyone should read this book here).

The novel traces the coming-of-age of Minke, a Javanese teenager of aristocratic descent. He is the only ‘Native’ Javanese at his prestigious high school, distinct and not fully accepted by the other students who are either ‘Indos’ (of Eurasian descent) or members of the ruling Dutch Colonial Society. In the Translator’s Acknowledgement, Lane explains the significance of these strata in society and the capital letters which denote them in the text. In the Dutch East Indies of this period, (beginning in 1898 when Minke is besotted with the young, pretty (and of course unattainable) Dutch Queen Wilhemina), society is stratified by race and caste, and languages are used to exclude and include. Natives were forbidden to use Dutch, the elite language of colonial power, so it shocks people when Minke uses it because he’s learned it at school, and it enrages the authorities when it is spoken by a self-educated concubine fighting for the rights of her child. But rigid class distinctions within the Javanese society were also observed: by the use of three different levels of Javanese, based on the status of the speaker and the listener. Understanding these distinctions and the frequent references to languages spoken and forms of address is important to understanding the significance of these codes being breached. (A glossary at the back of the book is provided). (It’s possible, perhaps, that these egalitarian breaches of hierarchical etiquette were part of the reason why the work was judged pro-Communist).

There are numerous other indications of this stratified society. Apart from the choice of language and the ability to speak it, race and caste are denoted by access to transport. Natives walk. Nyai— only able to break out of her lowly status and confer privileges just like a Dutch colonialist because she turfed out her useless husband— provides Minke with a carriage, and because her daughter can ride a horse, Minke learns to do it too. Housing styles and furniture are different in the homes of the elites, and Minke’s friend Jean Marais has a thriving business getting locals to reproduce European designs. Minke often feels uncomfortable and out of place because he doesn’t know social rules such as the use of cutlery, but he’s also discomfited when he recognises that the social rules are being deliberately used to humiliate him, (as when his fair-weather friend Robert Suurhof places him in a situation where as a Native Minke could expect to be completely ignored). And the position of women and girls in mixed-race relationships is invidious. Concubines are held in contempt by everyone, whether the woman chose her fate or not. Jean, the daughter of the Frenchman Jean Marais and an Achenese woman, must be sheltered from public scorn about her origins; and her mother wanted to be killed because she felt sullied by the touch of a European. Nyai’s daughter has no friends at all.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/10/25/this-earth-of-mankind-the-buru-quartet-1-by-... ( )

“This Earth of this Mankind” (1975) is the first of the Buru Quartet of historical novels written by Indonesian author Pramoedya Ananta Toer. The other three are “Child of all Nations”, “Footsteps”, and “House of Glass”. The books describe the Dutch colonial era end 19th/beginning 20th Century, from the perspective of various population groups, most notably the young Minke, a Dutch-educated Javanese. The stories were originally told to the fellow prisoners on Buru Island, where Pramoedya was incarcerated during the early years of the Suharto regime, deprived of writing materials. Later, with the help of the same prisoners, the stories were written down, and published, initially only outside Indonesia, where they were banned. This may have helped in turning them into perhaps the most important piece of Indonesian literature, well worth reading. ( )

"Aarde der mensen" is het eerste en in mijn ogen mooiste deel van een serie van 4 boeken "De Buru-tetralogie" die Pramoedya Ananta Toer tijdens zijn gevangenschap op het eiland Buru schreef en die als onderwerp hebben het opkomende nationalisme van de Indonesische bevolking en de verhouding tussen de inlandse bevolking en het koloniale Nederlandse gezag aan het begin van de 20e eeuw.
Hoofdpersoon in "Aarde der mensen" is Minke, een inlander, zoon van een belangrijk man, die op de HBS in Soerabaja zit, als enige inlander. In Indonesië kent men 3 groepen mensen: de Totoks, oftewel de volbloed Europeanen die bovenaan de ladder staan, gevolgd door de Indo's, mensen die afkomstig zijn uit een huwelijk tussen een Europese man en een inlandse vrouw en de inlanders, de oorspronkelijke bewoners van het land.
In het begin van het boek neemt een vriend van de HBS Minke mee naar de boerderij Buitenzorg. De boerderij is in naam een Europese onderneming, maar wordt in feite gerund door Njai Ontosoroh, de inlandse concubine van Herman Mellinga. De vriend die Indo is wil indruk maken op Annelies, de dochter van njai Ontosoroh, maar ziet tot zijn verbazing dat zowel dochter als moeder veel enthousiaster zijn over Minke.
Wat volgt is deels een liefdesgeschiedenis over de liefde tussen Minke en Annelies en deels een verhaal over de politieke situatie van die tijd. Beide verhaallijnen maken veel indruk en zorgen ervoor dat ik dit boek een van de grote romans van de 20e eeuw vind.
"Aarde der mensen" is het eerste deel van een tetralogie en wordt gevolgd door "Kind van alle volken", "Voetsporen" en "Het glazen huis". ( )